The mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, recently signed LA’s Green New Deal: Leading by Example which sets out his vision for a carbon-neutral city and pledges a firm commitment to environmental justice and equity. The executive directive aims to accelerate the work of the Green New Deal with plans for a “decade of action” to combat the climate crisis and “zero out” the city’s main sources of harmful emissions: buildings, transportation, electricity and trash.
The mayor states that adopting this agenda will make the city a global model for how to create a more sustainable planet and an economy that works for everyone.
“The science could not be clearer, and the stakes could not be higher. We must act this decade to save the planet and create a more equitable, prosperous, and healthy future for our children and grandchildren,” said Garcetti. “There is literally no time to waste because what we do in the next 10 years will determine the health of our planet and whether there’s a job, a pay check and a place for everyone in our economy.”
The directive includes the following measures:
- develop a series of bus and light rail infrastructure improvements to improve transit speeds by 30% by 2028;
- promote walking, bicycling, and micro-mobility with a city-wide network of active transportation corridors and neighborhood bike improvements;
- encourage city pension boards to explore divesting from fossil fuel companies and investing in the green economy;
- mandate that all new construction, major upgrades, and retrofits of municipally owned buildings demonstrate a pathway to carbon neutrality;
- accelerate the city’s bus fleet target to be entirely zero-emission in time for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games;
- support Metro in the development of a congestion pricing pilot program;
- expand low-income and multi-family household access to local clean energy;
- ensure that City Hall is zero waste by 2025; and,
- amend the city’s Green Building Code to ensure all new roofs and renovations are cool roofs.